OUTDOOR ADVENTURE – Th e Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will continue its three-day, sold-out run tonight at the Bing Crosby Theater, featuring a series of two dozen outdoor adventure films brilliantly displayed through the Bing’s new, just-installed, state-of-the art projector and $12,000 viewing screen.
(Coming this month: a new $50,000 surround-sound audio system).
The eclectic assortment of outdoor films has displayed some stellar adventures, including the chilling drama of a kayaker nearly drowning as a wild river pinned him and his boat to a boulder in Flow Hunters, and unbelievable skills, such as mountain biker Danny MacAskill riding obstacles through a steel plant in Industrial Revolutions .
The biggest loser film from the Friday night offerings might be 5 Races, 5 Continents featuring prolonged interviews (largely unintelligible) with ultra-runner Kilian Jornet through the 2011 running season to some of the world's most demanding races, none of which were explained.
If I had not hiked the 110-mile Tour du Mont Blanc in France, Italy and Switzerland this summer, I would not have had any idea what this film was about.
Best quote from Friday night's films came from disabled rock climber Pete Davis of The Gimp Monkeys :
“The right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms any day.”
Top films to show tonight (Saturday) include:
Crossing the Ice (Winner of Grand Prize, People's Choice and Best film on Exploration and Adventure at the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival)
REEL ROCK: Honnold 3.0 (The festival's Best Film on Climbing)
On Sunday, viewers will see a documentary, Wild Bill’s Run , about an adventurous 1972 snowmobile expedition -- and crime caper -- that attempted to cover 5,000 miles of snow and polar ice between Minnesota and Moscow.
Director Mike Scholtz emailed me this information about a local connection:
“Four people from Spokane helped me shoot and edit the film. Chris White and Michael Pickering of Comrade Studios and Clint Janson and Matt Vielle of Hamilton Studio .
"Chris White, in particular, was invaluable. He composed the score on a Moog synthesizer (befitting the film's 70s setting) and did the sound design and final edit for the Banff World Tour."
See the lineup of World Tour Films in the Spokane event.
See the always exciting World Tour trailer here .
